(a)Responsible officials. The Administrator of FSA, or his or her designee, is the responsible Federal official for carrying out the purpose of NEPA for all FSA programs. County committees, State committees, and Directors of Washington Divisions, within their respective areas of responsibility with the assistance of the FSA representative on the USDA Environmental Quality Committee, shall assist the Administrator in complying with the policies and purposes of NEPA generally, and, in particular, in determining whether the quality of the human environment will be significantly affected in implementing agency programs and preparing the necessary environmental documents.

(b)Offices responsible for carrying out NEPA—(1) Washington divisions. Washington divisions are responsible for carrying out NEPA with regard to legislative proposals and multi-State and national programs or major revisions of national programs.

(2)State committees. State committees are responsible for carrying out NEPA with regard to major actions in a State or area within a State.

(3)County committees. County committees are responsible for carrying out NEPA with regard to major actions within a county.

(c) All environmental assessments, environmental impact statements (EISs) and similar documents will be forwarded through the appropriate agency channels to the FSA representative on the USDA Environmental Quality Committee for review and submission to the Administrator.

Title 7 published on 2014-01-01

no entries appear in the Federal Register after this date.

This is a list of United States Code sections, Statutes at Large, Public Laws, and Presidential Documents, which provide rulemaking authority for this CFR Part.

The Farm Service Agency (FSA) proposes to consolidate, update, and amend its regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as amended (NEPA). FSA's NEPA regulations have been in place since 1980. Significant changes to the structure of FSA and the scope of FSA's programs require changes in FSA's NEPA regulations. The proposed changes would also better align FSA's NEPA regulations with the President's Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) NEPA regulations and guidance and meet the FSA responsibilities for periodic review of their categorical exclusions. One component of the changes proposed to improve the clarity and consistency of the regulations, is the proposed additions to the existing list of categorical exclusions (CatExs). CatExs involve actions that typically do not result in individual or cumulative significant environmental effects or impacts and therefore do not merit further environmental review in an Environmental Assessment (EA) or Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). This proposed rule would also propose to expand and clarify the list of actions that require an EA. In addition, this rule proposes conforming changes to existing references to FSA NEPA regulations in other current USDA regulations. The revisions to the FSA NEPA implementing regulations are intended to improve transparency and clarity of the FSA NEPA process for FSA program participants and to provide for a more efficient environmental review that will lead to better decisions and outcomes for stakeholders and the environment.